Job Discussion Forums

yessi · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:00 pm Post subject:

I have an appointment here in Kingston, Ontario to open an account with Scotia Bank. I figured this would be a good idea as, I was told there is a Scotia Bank in the city I'll be living in (Sahuayo de Morelos).

Figuring I'll deposit money here, and then take it out when I arrive there...

is this not a good idea? Meaning>>I'm assuming all Scotia banks work the same...and are interconnected...

I'll ask questions of the sort tomorrow anyway at my appointment, just figure I'd ask here as well figuring someone here may have more direct insight.

Thanks!

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

You can take money out of any bank with your ATM card while in Mexico if you don't feel like opening a new account. It may be more beneficial to stick with a bank you have dealt with for years (if that's the case). From what I have heard there is no real advantage to Scotia bank account holders from elsewhere, here in Mexico. You will still have to pay the fees to transfer money up to your northern account from here.

notamiss · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:49 pm Post subject:

When Scotiabank first acquired the Mexican bank Inverlat we inquired if there were any benefits like those you're looking for, Yessi. At that time there were none, and I haven't heard of any becoming available since to accountholders, with one exception. Somewhere I heard that if you have a Scotiabank account in Mexico, withdrawals from the Mexican account made at a Scotiabank ATM in Canada won't be charged the full foreign ATM withdrawal fee. Haven't been able to verify it though.

But you can always ask, although if things haven't changed in that regard from when we asked a few years ago, bank officials won't even know the answer (which probably means "no").

leslie · Joined: 08 Feb 2003 Posts: 235

dixie · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 644 Location: D.F

I have a Scotia account too, and there is nothing connected that I know of. I get charged for withdrawals (will now need to look into that - thanks Leslie!), and you certainly cannot transfer between the two.

I read somewhere today (I cannot remember where) that the reason for the lack of interconnectedness is due to international law (what law, I do not know). Perhaps that answers all of our annoying issues with banks here, and back home?

MO39 · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:20 am Post subject:

Phil_K · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own

I was told that I could withdraw money in Scotiabank in Canada with the same fees as in Mexico - so I assume it works the other way round too. Scotiabank charges on number of withdraws, which in turn is based on average monthly balance. As I never keep too much in my account, I pay more charges than I'd like.

By the way, I forgot to take my debit card to Canada, so I didn't get to verify the first claim!

Gary Denness · Guest

I've gained a fair bit of banking experience over the last 8 months or so! I started doing PayPerPost ads on a blog at the end of last year, the rewards of which were paid into PayPal. So I needed a bank account in order to withdraw the money from PayPal.

I went to Scotiabank purely on the basis that they had a good English language version of their site and a branch near me. All opened very smoothly, and I got a Scotiabank debit card. Turned out that their debit card won't work on the internet however. Which would have been useful (I'd like to use Ticketmaster online!) but at the time not essential.

I could withdraw up to US$500 a month just by registering a bank account with PayPal, but you need to add a card to your account to lift that limit. Which I needed to do, so I applied for a Scotiabank credit card. That was three months ago. I still haven't been approved or declined, and a half dozen visits to the bank to ask how things are going have been a waste of time. I just receive a barrage of lies. Of the 20 or so phone calls to my branch, so far only one has been returned. That was to say they'd phone back in an hour. They didn't.

I gave up and applied for a credit card at HSBC. That was a month ago. Same story as with Scotiabank.

In the end I opened up a Banamex Perfiles account. The card works on the internet (although it did take 10 days to activate it!), I can pay all my utility bills through their online site and I'm so far generally impressed. As far as Mexican banks go.

Has anyone got a credit card through a Mexican bank? Which one and how? I've been given a lot of conflicting advice about the mechanics of it all. I teach a director at Bancomer who kindly made inquiries for me. He came to the conclusion that whilst most of the literature indicates I should be able to apply for one with an FM3, most literature is now out of date, due to new anti-money laundering procedures being rolled out regularly.

MO39 · Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 4:55 am Post subject:

I can't comment on the logistics of getting a credit card from a Mexican bank, but I can finish up my tale of opening an account here in Mexico City. Yesterday I went to my local Santander branch with the documents I'd been told to bring (FM3, passport, and a recent utility bill to confirm my address), and things went quite smoothly. The nice young lady in charge of new accounts took all my information and typed it onto an on-line application. She even made the required copies of the documents I'd supplied. In about an hour, everything was set up, and I was able to make the required minimum deposit of 1000 pesos with one of the tellers. My debit card is supposed to be ready to be picked up in 7 working days. We'll see how that goes...

Milenka · Joined: 30 Jun 2008 Posts: 113 Location: Mexico City